Sandman's new 100G project w/ new ideas?

[sandman450f]

Maybe this will help on the plumbing

6 and 7 are so you can get a perspective on the inside of the stand. 6 is the inside of the rear horizontal tank support , 7 is the underside of the display tank

1. where the 2" collected o/f drain enters the stand through rear support
2. 1" reducer bushing off the straight portion of the tee
3. ball valve for on/off or flow control to water change tank
4. Supply line to w/c tank. extends forward to inside front of stand, elbows 90deg to the left and ends directly above the top opening on the w/c tank. Then downspout to inside of w/c tank
5. Outlet down to sump

There is more than sufficient flow to the w/c tank simply by the velocity of the water as it hits the reducer bushing, the balance of course drains out the side outlet down to the sump

 

[sandman450f]

This pic is after the w/c supply makes its 90deg to the left, and shows the downspout. The downspout is not connected to the w/c tank, entering in through the top. The opening is sloted on top of the w/c tank to allow complete opening of the drawer w/o interfering with the downspout. The 2" o/f bulkhead on the w/c tank is shown and that hose just dumps into the sump.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very handy there...

 

[sandman450f]

Thanks, I think I'll be spending Christmas eve to clean up the garage now, can barely walk around in it now because of this project

 

[sandman450f]

rdmpe, man you were right. I tried what you suggested, and blocked all my air vents, added some down turned elbows to make sure the bulkeads stayed fully submerged, and it drained water like a race horse, in fact the two return pumps i have in there for testing couldnt keep up with the flow. Now I understand the need for valves on the drains for tuning. I suspect with that setup and a couple of mags I can up the flow rates to something far over what is needed maybe even 2500gph+ maybe will even go w/ an Iwaki or some other external in this case. THANKS A LOT !!!!. That added flow should make my maniford system work out really well, I figure I'll use two of the three down turned and set the remaining one up high as a safety net.

 

[Stile2]

Good progress on the tank. I wish I was making that kind of progress.

Loc-line is the black modular usually return lines.
Here is a link to marine deopt
link

What LFS do you use? I am a bit tired of Pet World on Hospitality in San Bernardino.

Keith

 

[sandman450f]

OK i got it, a moduar plumbing system. I go to a couple of stores, if its gonna be a large or expensive coral purchase I gen. go to pacific reef in Huntington Beach (I'm generally down in OC most of the time) That place is great, excellent selection and pretty good prices.. For pretty much all other stuff I go to Salties in Riverside off Indiana, roughly 91 and 15, small place, prices kinda high, but the ownere is a really nice guy and he pretty much takes care of whatever I need. Either way, both are prob pretty far out of ur way.

 

[rdmpe]

Glad you found that drain idea useful. It isn't my idea, I found it here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=344892

The critical thing about restricting the main drain with a valve is that you are risking a clog from a snail or whatever. So you really need to have enough emergency drain available to handle the entire flow if the main drain gets clogged. If you can shut that main drain valve completely off and not have a flood, then you are all set. If not, you would be risking a flood...

 

[sandman450f]

Ok Guys i'm back and nearing completion of the construction. Here are a couple of pics of the underside of the stand and the casters. I just added the shimming pads and made up a few whopper shims. This is designed so the rear of the stand can be shimmed (easily) from the front. in addition to just shimming these are the pads that will remove sufficient weight from the casters when the stand is in final position. You can see from prev pictures the front of the stand, which will have a "kick panel" to cover the access once the shims are in place.

 

[rdmpe]

Looking for an update!

 

[Stile2]

I'm just glad someone may be going as slow as I am.

 

[sandman450f]

Excellent timing. Just about finished fine tuning everything tonight. With the huge flow through the sump I was having a nightmare of a time getting rid of micro bubbles.

Everything was transfered about a week ago, and got my new g3 skimmer in a couple of days ago. I picked up a 3x175MH + 2x96pc hamilton retrofit (used here on rc), in adition I got a Vecton25w UV sterilizer, and still using the Rena canister filter for carbon and what not... As for the light, the hamilton 14k's,which dont have much if any life left to them, though producing a nice color, seem pretty dim. Acc I ended up using the 10ks which were used for only a few months. I'm not sure, I'll see how everything reacts, but i may end up having to going with 250's. I added 6x65w pcs,(already had them) and will switch all the bulbs to actinic. Maybe new 14 or 15k's will be brighter, so I'll try that too before I switch.

Anyways following in a bit are pics of the setup,Still the center door is not complete, neither is the kick panel, but lol, if's its fully complete, then i'll have nothing left to do.

 

[sandman450f]

Here's a pic of the canopy completed, temporarily braced in place. I combined both a flip front and a flip top, to make sure I get easy access to the tank.

90% of the maintenance can be done from the front, and the last little bit, including better access to the reflectors and bulbs can be done through the top.

 

[sandman450f]

As you can see I went ahead and drilled a hole for a cooling fan, used a radio shack 115vac 65cfm, about 5" diameter. I prev used pc fans on my other canopies but was a little concerned that they wouldnt be able provide enough. This one works extremely well and is very quiet. Very little light comes out this hole, and it is on a pretty much unseen side so I wont be creating a cover for it.

In addition, I drilled another hole on the stand, opposite side as i found out the the MH magnetic ballast create pretty intense heat, hot enough that the case can actually burn you. Added another fan and solved that problem, case is just warm to the touch now.

 

[sandman450f]

Heres another pic of the canopy showing the access

This canopy is pretty heavy, and considering all those holes I drilled was a little nervous about the weight. Though it probably wasn't necc, and it does obstruct a bit of view, just to be on the safe side I decided to add on the sides so that the bulk of the weight would be supported by the stand. in the end it looks pretty good, blending canopy and stand together

Now I suppose no one needs to see another skimmer pic, but I cant resist, the new g3, no mods (maybe yet) on its second day

Still only producing a light skimmate, but foaming well. I expect it to be much better a week or so down the road. I didnt do the vinegar bath or anything, just rinsed it and popped it in (impatience)

 

[sandman450f]

 

[sandman450f]

This is when the nightmare began. Micro Bubbles. I used a 40g for a sump, added in a refugium, and built some monster baffles to clean up the drain flow.

I was running 2 hf20's for returns and had some serious flow going. After blocking all the air vents to make sure the 4 1" drains could keep up, and adding one of those filter bags to the drain, the water exiting the baffles was pretty clear. Then came the skimmer. First off, it was a challenge just to get it in. Originally I was going to go with a g2 because of the smaller footprint, but decided on the g3 because I didnt want to be stuck later with an underachiever.

That skimmer produced massive amounts of micro bubbles, and there is no more room to move the return pumps further away. I ended up plumbing its outlet back to drain entrance to the baffles and doubled up the filter bag. 95% of the bubbles were gone after that, but still not good enough. I built an acrylic compartment for the return pumps with about a 3.5x3.5 opening in the rear furthest away from the baffle outlet. I covered the opening with floss. In addition I added another divider to force the water to travel as long as possible (all the way around the sump) before it hit the floss, ) almost nil bubbles after two straight days off working on this problem. Oh yeah and I also reduced the flow, i dropped from 2 hf20's to 1 hf20 and a 2100. I'll be working on that later to get back to the 2 20s.

 

[sandman450f]

As far as the plumbing inside the tank goes, I didnt take any pictures of it being buit or before buried, however i have about 20 outlets throught the tank most already hidden by rockout, some still exposed.

 

[sandman450f]

Here's a pic of inside shelf and equip.

 

[sandman450f]

Also, just wanted to mention about those check valves I got, they are great, if your flow rate isnt too high. I had to get rid of them because under the flow from the HF's, that supposed no-noise design (Colonial engineering v10BBCT) was very noisy. The balls rattled like crazy, no matter what position the valve was in. Took those back and got a couple of the $20 variety flap type check valves.

For the center door, it's kinda large, so I wont be hinging it like the two outer ones, but will use cabinet magnets to hold it in place making it completly removable.